


Heart Out in the Cold (Reignite)

by evening_spirit



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No Love Triangle, but also post 1x13 Fix It, frienships all around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2020-05-15 07:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19290673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evening_spirit/pseuds/evening_spirit
Summary: Another Post 1x13 Story. This one startes immediately after the credits rolled.Alex waits for Michael to show up at the airstream, but Michael is some place else and then... Things get complicated. Kyle calls Alex, Michael senses Max's distress, Maria calls Kyle and somehow the whole gang ends up trying solve the huge problem of a dead alien and a resurrected human girl. Oh, and an unconscious sergeant, let's not forget the sergeant.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NEW AUTHOR's NOTE:  
> While writing this story I didn't take any Season 2 spoilers into account. Mostly, I wanted to completely erase the love triangle from existence. Yeah, I also wanted this story to be the epic Season 2 AU with dismantling Project Shepherd, alien spaceships and stuff, but my brain being the way it is, I didn't manage. With Season 2 just around the corner, I want to at least wrap up this one story thread, meaning fix the relationship between Alex and Maria. I hope to get it done before Season 2 rolls in.

Jesse Manes was a man of principle. Of rules and convictions. There was no place in his life for pointless affection, less yet for trying to understand children's needs. He'd raised all four of his sons the same way and neither of them came out wrong for it.

For the first thirteen years of his life Alex Manes never figured there might be anything unusual about his upbringing. Weren't all fathers demanding and strict? It was the way to raise real men.

When Alex turned thirteen, Jesse Manes started hitting him. For the longest time a conflict waged within the boy – was his dad doing something wrong? Or perhaps he simply deserved it? The question hung, unanswered, until the day Jesse Manes attacked and mutilated Michael Guerin. Michael Guerin, who had never hurt a living being in his life. Michael Guerin who did not deserve the beating. That's what finally convinced Alex that his father was a bad person. More than that, that his father was dangerous.

A child needs approval from their parent. A child looks up to their parent and, for everything to be right with the world, a child needs to believe their parent is righteous. When Alex went to war, he was not a child anymore. Nevertheless, he still longed for Jesse Manes' praise as he longed for his father to one day change his mind and accept him for who he was. The rational part of his brain knew that wasn't likely to happen and the only way he would survive and maintain his own integrity, would be by severing all ties to his father. Distance and time eventually made it possible. After a period of disdain came raw hatred and then, one day, a calm realization that he was an adult now and no longer needed anything from his father. That's when Alex knew he could defeat Jesse Manes.

It took a lifetime for Alex to learn that his father was cold and hateful, and wrong, and yes, dangerous too. But even a lifetime of painful lessons hadn't prepared him for the moment he had to understand to what degree the man he used to love and look up to, was void of any simplest morals. Torture and genocide of the aliens were a confirmation of Jesse Manes' mindless cruelty. But seeing the man's calm, perhaps somewhat satisfied expression, after he had pushed Jim Valenti, his once friend and colleague, into the room with a deadly factor – that was the thing that did Alex in.

And then, right then, came a thought... _I have his blood in my veins. He raised me. He was my first teacher. Can I really claim that I'm any different?_

Villages, burned, because he compiled the data. Men and women - and children - dead, because of his analyses. Bombs – exploding. Lives – destroyed. How many? How many innocents? Who truly is innocent and who isn't? Whose role is it to decide?

Kyle had no answers for him and Alex wouldn't burden him with them, not tonight, not when he learned exactly why his father had died. Alex told him to go home, get some sleep. Come back tomorrow.

He couldn't stay at the bunker himself. He wasn't sure he could handle being by himself at the cabin either, so he went to the only place he'd ever felt like home. Guerin's airstream. Only Guerin wasn't there. For some time it didn't matter. His scent was in the air, his things thrown haphazardly all around. Alex wasn't really sure how long he spent in the darkness, waiting for him to show up.

And he did, and they spoke, even if for a brief moment. Alex spoke, actually, he uttered a few incoherent sentences, ignored whatever was happening with Guerin and then they were interrupted by – what? a psychic message? It had to be a psychic message – and Guerin ran out into the night and the storm and the rain.

"I'll come back tomorrow," he said, parting. "We can talk then."

Alex wanted to wait. He wanted to be there the moment Guerin would be back, because he wasn’t the man who walked away anymore, and "tomorrow" might only be an hour away. But when dark thoughts kept circling in his mind, bringing images and unwanted memories, and no matter how hard he tried to suppress them or push them away - and couldn’t; when he was too exhausted to sleep and too wrung up to stay on this side of sane, he decided to try his luck at the bunker. Maybe Kyle wasn’t so wrong after all, maybe they should have dug into Caulfield files right away

Kyle had done it for personal reasons. Alex’s motivation was different, he was a tactician and his training called for a research that would reveal the opponent’s strong and weak points and ultimately give them advantage.

He also knew – and his suspicions found confirmation in the structure of the research wing of the facility – that they weren't playing against his father anymore. At least not only against his father. There was a much bigger player involved. While Jesse Manes could sustain the bunker and its equipment with his family money, it was plain to see even without proof, that one person wouldn't be able to finance all the experiments, staff working at Caulfield, all the safety measures, not to mention the prisoners themselves, who were living beings after all, with physiological needs that had to be met, if whoever ran this operation wanted to continue their research.

And oh, there were records of financial operations on one of the discs. Encrypted, but in a not-too-sophisticated way.

As hands on the clock turned closer to the morning hours, numbers on the computer screen begun to blur in front of Alex's eyes. He desperately wanted to find something useful, especially given how they blew up the building some, oh, twelve? fifteen? hours ago. There surely was an investigation underway. If Flint was involved, they were as good as dead. Or at least under surveillance, if, whoever was behind all this, cared about answers more than about revenge. A chill ran down Alex's spine.

Did they ever check the bunker for surveillance equipment?

Was he being paranoid?

He was tired. The day was… very demanding to say the least, physically and emotionally and he wasn't helping anyone, trying to understand all the things that would be difficult to understand at a full mental capacity. He'd sent Kyle to rest; he needed rest too.

When Alex stood up, his knee nearly bulked under him. Prosthesis was tight and uncomfortable around the stump swollen from sitting too long. He took it off, pulled off two socks and put it back on. It was a little better, but he still needed to treat his "new normal" with more attention and regard. At least physical pain took his mind off that vicious circle of self-depreciating thoughts and nightmarish scenarios. Going to bed he took painkillers but no anti-anxiety meds.

In hindsight, having awoken from a nightmare after only four hours of sleep, Alex figured he should have taken both.

He couldn't go back to sleep. Besides it was late in the morning of "tomorrow" already and he was supposed to meet with Michael. They needed to work things out between them. Their world had shaken at its foundations – Michael's more than Alex's – and it was no time for teenage drama anymore. They needed each other to deal with the past and to face whatever was coming in the future, because – paranoia or not – Alex had an eerie feeling that Caulfield was just a beginning.

Michael hadn’t specified when they’d meet "tomorrow"; in the morning, at noon, at night? The airstream was empty and silent when Alex pulled up, so he sat in the chair and wondered how long he’d have to wait. He could call. When he pulled out his phone, half-wondering if Michael would even pick up, the phone vibrated in his palm with an incoming connection.

* * *

Playing music used to be something that quieted the storm inside his head. Michael couldn't remember the last time he played.

Wrong, he could remember very well. It had been before that night when Isobel... Noah in Isobel's body... killed those three girls. The night before his fingers were smashed by a hammer. The night before he'd made love with Alex, and for the last time thought this was actual, real, physical and emotional love and that love was something to be cherished.

The hand was healed now.

The man who had held the hammer, also held the switch to the explosives that murdered a couple dozen elderly people, his people, who had been tortured for generations. By generations. Of Manes men.

The cords on the guitar were all wrong.

The silence that fell stung his ears. He needed a drink.

"What happened with your hand?" Maria asked and Michael remembered that she was here. Right.

He looked at his hand, as if seeing it for the first time. Turned it this way and that.

"I'm not sure how to explain it?" he half stated, half asked, amused.

"It's... healed," Maria tried the word, like it was made of glass.

"I know, right? It's incredible!"

"A miracle?"

"You could call it that."

"Like that Native woman from a couple of weeks back?"

Michael looked up at her, remembered the trip he and Max took. The woman. He could tell it was that woman. He'd make her quite a rep. It was better than the alternative.

Maria stood up and slowly came near him, took his fingers in hers. "You know why I went to that woman, do you?"

Michel angled his head. "Something with your mom?"

"She's got this.. It's not exactly dementia, no one knows what it is." She grabbed his wrist and held his hand up. "Will you tell me who did this?"

"I... can't," Michael shook his head.

Maria let his hand fall to his lap and took a deep breath in, then released it. He thought she was going to say something, but she just shook her head and walked back to the bar.

Michael didn't know what to tell her. He couldn't just say Max was a magic healer. An alien. That he was one too. Could he? Damn it, maybe he could, people were being brought in the know left and right, Liz, Valenti, Alex found out who knows when and how. Michael sure as hell hadn't told anyone. Maybe it was his turn?

"Maria," he said and felt like he got slammed right in the chest and shot between the eyes all at the same time.

Max.

Damn it, what the actual fuck, Max?

"What is it?" he heard Maria's question like through a gluey gell. He wasn't sure if he answered, it was hard to breathe. "Michael! Are you okay?"

"Call..." he uttered. Who? Who could help?


	2. Chapter 2

Master Sergeant Manes was at least a hundred and ninety pounds of solid muscle and Kyle was a doctor not a weightlifter. And not a mathematician apparently, because he hadn't calculated his options well. There was no way he was going to pull the heavy sergeant up the three steps to the door, much less a steep flight up to the hatch and out of the bunker. And into his car.

After fifth unsuccessful attempt to move the man more than a few inches, he gave up and pulled out his phone.

"Yeah, Kyle?" Alex sounded annoyed. Why did he sound annoyed?

"Uh, hi," Kyle uttered and took a deep breath.

"What is it?"

"I need your help."

"Yeah? With what, when?"

"Now, would be best. Like, right now. I'm--" Kyle looked around. Should he just say it on the phone? "You know where," he opted for secretive.

Alex was silent for a heartbeat. Five heartbeats, but then, Kyle's heart was hammering.

"I'm not sure we established any code words," Alex said in a voice an octave lower and several tones quieter. "I think I know what you mean, but I wouldn't want to end up in one place, while you wait for me elsewhere. You sound urgent."

"The bunker," Kyle blurted.

"Good."

"It is urgent."

"I'm on it."

Ten minutes – that felt like ten hours, mind you – later Kyle heard steps outside. He picked up the pistol and aimed it at the door. He wasn't sure he would be able to shoot, if push came to shove – he still shivered at the very thought of a firearm – but he was rather certain it was Alex, and if he was right, there would be no need to find out.

The door opened, half of a person appeared for a split second and vanished.

"Kyle, it's me, Alex! Lower your weapon!"

Wow, Alex's reaction time blew Kyle's out of the water.

"Lowered." Kyle put the gun back on the table. "Lowered."

"Geez, this really looks--" Alex started to speak as he entered, and paused, frozen.

He noticed his father on the floor.

Kyle could see all of his muscles go rigid, he even stopped to breathe for a moment, then took a deliberate, determined breath in, licked his lips and exhaled. Then looked up at Kyle. "What happened?"

Kyle unbuttoned his shirt to demonstrate the bulletproof west he was wearing and a bullet embedded dead center. His chest hurt like sonofabitch and that was also the reason he couldn't lift the Master Sergeant.

"He shot me," he said, as if it was necessary, then added. "So I shot him back. With barbiturates."

"Whoa! Barbiturates?" Alex finally took the three steps down and crouched next to his father. He checked the prone man's pulse.

"We need to get him to a hospital," Kyle said.

"Are you insane?" Alex stood up with some effort and a help of a table. He wiped his face. "This is such a bad idea."

"Where else?" Kyle shrugged. "He may stop breathing any moment and we can't exactly resuscitate him here. Or provide any other necessary care."

Alex looked at him for a long moment, then shook his head, once.

"What?" Kyle barked.

"You don't want him dead?"

"No! Yes. No. Why would I want him dead? If I wanted him dead I would have bought a gun and shot him! Or-or," he stuttered, gesturing wildly and running his hands through his hair and pacing up and down the room. "Or I had his gun in my hands, you know. I could have even shot him with that, I could. I think the safety was off. I think it still is."

Alex grabbed the gun before Kyle finished the sentence and clicked the safety on. He shook his head again.

"We can't get him to a hospital."

"Why not?" Kyle thought he should know why, but the answer refused to break through all of his panic and paranoia.

Alex glared at him like he was a moron. Kyle spread his arms.

"What are they gonna to with him at the hospital?" Alex asked with a notable amount of patience, then answered, because Kyle's brain was still in a frizz. "Detox him."

"That's not how barbs work," Kyle shrugged. There were things he knew better than the airman after all. "They have to wear off. You wait for them to wear off."

"How long? A day, two?" Kyle nodded. "And then he'd be conscious to tell everyone, who dosed him. If his doctors don't find out earlier, through an investigation. Barbiturates can be detected on a tox screen, right?"

Kyle nodded again. Then, "But I'd be his doctor."

"Twenty-four-seven? And what about the nurses? Besides, you being his doctor could make you look suspicious. You bring him to a hospital, unconscious, you treat him. And what? You planned to keep dosing him up? Indefinitely?"

Kyle scratched the side of his head. So maybe he didn't exactly think this through, but he would figure it out. Probably. Maybe.

"Have you ever attempted to murder someone before?" Alex asked and Kyle blinked at him, incredulous. He saw a smirk and a mischievous gleam in Alex's eyes. "You're so inexperienced in this, Kyle."

"And you're a jerk."

"Can't say I'm sorry." Alex sobered up and looked around the place. "We can't keep him here either," he said. "Someone would have to watch over him at all times. Guess we'll get him to the cabin, it's remote enough and I'm mostly there. You'll get some necessary supplies from the hospital and once we have him settled, we'll worry what to do next. The 'keep dosing him up' part of the plan wasn't actually so bad."

Great. Okay, that could be one way to approach this disaster and Kyle didn't protest. They were back at the point where they needed to carry a heavy and totally immobile and unwieldy man out of the bunker. Seeing Alex limp under the weight, Kyle felt guilty for dragging him into this. He could have called Michael or Max, but Alex was the first one that came to his mind and his handicap somehow faded from his memory. Alex was dealing with it so well, never once complained, never showed any discomfort, much less pain, walked, ran even, without so much as a hitch. It was easy to forget he was missing a leg.

Well, it was too late now; if he said anything, Alex would surely tear him a new one, so Kyle kept his mouth shut and tried as he might to carry his share of the burden. Climbing up the stairs was even harder than Kyle had anticipated with Alex stumbling several times and falling onto his knees as they were nearly at the top.

"You need help?" Kyle made a move, but Alex stopped him with,

"Don't drop him!" Then scrambled back onto his feet. "Let's get him in my truck, into the backseat."

When they were done with it and Kyle checked the sergeant's pulse and breathing, he straightened up and found himself face to face with Alex.

"How's the leg?" he braved to ask before his rationale would make him change his mind.

To his surprise Alex didn't reply with, "great." Instead he winced and gave Kyle his keys. "Gonna need you to drive."

"Sure."

Shit!

Kyle's doctor's instincts finally kicked in as he took in Alex's appearance once again, cataloguing the symptoms. Quickened breathing, obviously not just due to exertion, small beads of sweat on his forehead and upper lip, blown pupils, paleness. He was clearly in pain and Kyle was just about to call him on it, when his phone beeped and he almost jumped out of his skin at the sound.


	3. Chapter 3

Now Kyle's breathing became faster than Alex's.

"Shit," he whispered. It was Maria. What a timing! "Yes?"

"Kyle I need your help!" she yelled into the receiver, sounding all frantic. Great! Like he was in any position to do anything! Right this very moment! "It's Michael!" Kyle's blood froze in his veins and he met Alex's eyes. "He said no hospital and then he said doctor, so he had to mean you!" She half-stated, half-asked, but Kyle worried about something else. Did Alex hear? Please, don't let him hear. He didn't appear to have heard, his brow furrowed and eyes questioning, but not alarmed.

Kyle raised his finger in a universal wait-a-moment gesture, then walked away a couple of steps, while Maria yelled something in the distance, perhaps to Michael.

"What's going on?" Kyle managed to cut in.

"I don't know he... Michael, wait for me! He just ran out of the bar, I'm, fuck, where are the keys? Michael, wait!"

"Maria?"

He listened to her hasty breathing, a jingle of keys, then rapid shuffling, like someone running and a slam of the car door. Then the name "Isobel", shouted in Michael's far-away voice.

"Maria, damn it, what's going on?"

"I have no idea!" she yelled in his ear again. "First he started squirming, like something hurt him, then he said to call you, then he said something about Max, then... Yes, it is Kyle! What? Liz? He told me to call Liz now. What? No, he's telling you to call Liz. She's already on her way there. Where?"

"Where?" Kyle asked at the same time as Maria.

"To Max apparently."

"Are we supposed to go to Max?"

"Not to Max, to the desert. What are you talking about? Michael? Dammit, Kyle, I'm seriously scared here, I have no idea what's going on with him. Desert, he says, west of town. We're almost at Isobel's. Can you call Liz?"

"Yeah, sure. I will call Liz."

The call hung up. Kyle stared at his phone for a moment. It was like a deja vu, actually, less than twenty four hours ago he was stitching Liz up, because she didn't want to go to the hospital either. Damn, with friends like these... He turned back to Alex and came up to him, still trying to sort it all out in his head.

"That was Maria, she called, because something happened to Michael, but he seems fine, other than being worried about Max and Isobel and he told her to tell me to call Liz. Because Liz apparently knows what's going on? Somewhere in the desert, west of town?" He phrased the last sentences like questions, because he wasn't sure any of it actually sounded like anything that would make sense.

"Then call Liz!" Alex urged him and grabbed open the truck door. "And start to drive!" he added, because Kyle didn't move from his spot.

Right. Drive the car. Liz picked up as they were moving away from the bunker, when he called her the second time – the first one having gone to voicemail.

"It's really not the best time, Kyle," she panted.

"It's about Max, isn't it?" he cut straight to the chase.

"How do you know?"

"Michael. The psychic link? I don't know. He and Maria are going to the same place you are, apparently, but I don't have that... special ability you all share, so. I need more specific directions."

"I--" Liz sounded hesitant. "There is a road out of town, toward the dam on Two Rivers. But you have to get off earlier. Before Simpson's farm. I don't know how to tell you where."

"I got her," Alex said in a steady voice right next to him.

Everyone was panicked, screaming or yelling, Kyle himself felt like his heart was about to punch its way out of his ribcage – had felt like this since yesterday, alas – and Alex's calm and focused voice sounded all the more bizarre for it. Bizarre, but grounding too, steadying, calming.

"You're on the right road," he added, eyes fixed ahead, his laptop open in front of him, with a tiny red dot in the middle of a brownish map. Kyle didn't see the details, but he didn't need to. Alex would tell him where to go. A few minutes later he said, "Turn left, there." They drove down the dusty ground road, then, "Now right," and they were on the barren desert, no road and no sign of pretty much anything. The truck jumped up and down on an uneven terrain before Kyle managed to reduce speed to a manageable level.

"Is that them?" Alex asked through his teeth. His breathing was still rapid and Kyle dared a glance at him, instead of the cloud of dust in the distance.

"You good?"

"I'll be fine." He wiped the sweat from his face, then nodded again at someone pushing all the reasonable speed limits up ahead. It had to be Michael.

Their destination was a couple of miles into the desert. Liz's gray SUV and Michael's truck parked just at the edge of a shallow gully. Kyle pulled the truck up next to them, jumped out and skidded to the bottom of the rift. Didn't see any indication of anyone being present anywhere near. Aside from the cars. Where were they supposed to go?

He looked up for the answer to Alex, who was coming down as well, albeit much more carefully.

"Need any help?"

"Nope."

Of course.

Kyle looked around again. At one end the gully widened, flattened and eventually opened up into the desert. On the other side it seemed to get deeper and also curvy. Kyle jogged up to take a peek beyond the nearest turn. It ended not much farther at a vertical wall overgrown with shrub. A deep shadow hid, perhaps, an entrance to some underground cavern.

He glanced back. Alex reached the bottom of the gully, but he leaned to massage his knee. Kyle was torn between going back to him and checking the cavern.

"It think it's over there," he shouted.

"Go ahead." Alex straightened. "I'm right behind you."


	4. Chapter 4

They were fucked.

Alex ran through everything that was wrong with their situation, once more. Sergeant Manes in the back of his truck, unconscious – check. Aliens plus Liz freaking out – check. Maria, who so far had no idea about aliens, now getting involved in the middle of the freakout – check. Possibility they were under surveillance – Alex glanced up at the sky, bright blue, occasional clouds, the satellites had a perfect view. Wide open space for miles, so many spots for a hideout. Even if they weren't watched yet, three cars in this spot in the middle of nowhere – if anyone had Roswell surroundings under scrutiny, that would rise a red flag.

Painkillers he had in the car took the edge off throbbing in his knee, but not much more than that, he added his personal fuckup to the tally, then limped after Kyle.

Aliens had been in the freakout mode since last night, since Caulfield probably. Or maybe there was some other reason if a dozen messages from Isobel and Max that Michael had on his phone had been any indication. They had been investigating alien murders too, as far as he knew. Alex and Kyle had left Michael at Max's last night, then there’d been all that blood on Michael that Alex hadn't asked about and he cursed himself for it now and then, there’d been the psychic call that pulled Michael out and away. Alex had no idea what all happened and his skin crawled at the thought.

Caulfield was a mess, and all of its consequences, but the serial murderer thing could hit them as well, simultaneously, and wouldn’t that be fun.

The cave itself provided another pain in the ass for Alex. His ass, hip and knee, actually. He cursed under his breath at the uneven floor and low ceiling of the narrow corridor. It took him several minutes of lighting his way through, with his cell-phone, before he noticed another source of light on the wall in the distance. Muffled voices were becoming scattered words, words became sentences and the first one he understood fully, was Kyle saying in a broken whisper,

"I am sorry. There is nothing else I can do."

Alex rounded the corner just in time to see Michael push Kyle away and throw himself at a prone Max. He pressed both hands against his brother's chest, palms glowing red, an unholy yell escaping his mouth.

"Michael, stop," Isobel pleaded, her face tearstained, hands hovering above Michael's back, as if afraid to touch him.

Maria stood a few feet away on his other side, in the corner, her both hands gripping her head, eyes filled with dread and grief. She also reached out a hesitant hand toward Michael, but didn't move forward otherwise. Behind her a sobbing Liz cuddled with... Rosa Ortecho. Equally distraught and very much alive Rosa Ortecho.

Damn.

Kyle scrambled to his feet.

Michael kept screaming.

Isobel cried.

"Michael, please!" Her whole body shook with sobs. "Michael not like this! Not at the cost of your life!"

Without thinking, Alex took a step forward.

* * *

It was just like Max had said. Suddenly Michael knew he could do it.

It didn't mean he would be successful, not at the first attempt and not with such a difficult case either way. He ignored Liz crying, ignored Isobel trying to tell him to "Wait. Think about it." He leaned over Max and pushed. Pushed his life force into his brother's lifeless body.

Nothing happened.

Then Kyle came in and Iz pulled him away and Kyle, along with Liz tried the good ole' CPR for a few moments, but Kyle looked resigned even at the beginning. He checked Max's pulse once again and shook his head.

Of course. What were they expecting? Max wasn't dead because his heart stopped. His heart stopped, because there was no life force in him and it wouldn't start if he wasn't filled with it once again. Michael was the only one who could help. The only one!

He'd always felt this within him. He'd never known its purpose or its name or even that it was something that made him different from humans. Really, he knew very little about what made him different from humans, other than affinity to acetone and being able to move things. But he should have known this was different, because in a way, it was connected with his ability to move things. Granted, he only realized it now.

Life force. Energy, for lack of a better word, that filled him from within and flowed out of him into the world. Energy that flowed from other people toward him. Just, energy. He now pushed and pushed it into Max, because his source of that energy was emptied. Max no longer had that connection from the within, from that realm from whence it coursed. Michael searched for that tiny point in space, if it even was a point, not some four-dimensional construct of unknown qualities, in hope that he could connect his energy to it and restore the flow to Max. He knew that was what he needed to do, but he didn't know how.

And then he felt arms curl around his middle and pull him back, and contact between his palms and the skin on Max's chest broke.

"No!" he yelled and turned to swing at whoever that was, but missed. Stumbled to his knees, felt weak like a whelp. Finally ended up on his ass in the middle of the cave.

"Michael." Isobel's face swam in front of his eyes. "Michael, please..." Her face was wet with tears, her nose runny. She looked nothing like the distinguished, elegant sister of his. Streaks of mascara mixed with tears, stained her cheeks, her lips were smudged to the right and her hair stuck on one side, out of a tight ponytail she had them pulled into. "Michael, we have to do it another way. We have to give it time," she said.

"Time?"

"Yes. Time. We have to train, we've only just learned those new abilities and straining them right away won't do anybody any good. We'll take him to his pod and he'll wait there. A couple of days. While we train."

"You don't know that!"

"I do."

"No," Michael shook his head. He didn't believe that. He didn't know they could revive Max at all, he didn't know there really was a way. Maybe they were just putting off the inevitable and maybe it would be better to know already… Maybe it would be better to just let him... But he couldn't lose another member of his family. He'd just lost a mother, he couldn't face losing Max now, he couldn't!

"We have to," said a voice from the side.

It was Liz. She stood between Maria and Kyle, with Rosa at her back, and she made a verdict.

"We don't really have a choice now. We hoped it would work, but it didn't and the next best thing to do, is take Max to his pod and at least preserve him the way he is now. We must take care of all the other stuff, like..." she gestured behind herself, "like with Rosa being here and what to do about her. Let's just take him and let's go..."

"Whoa, wait a moment!" another voice spoke and this time Michael knew without looking. It was Alex's voice and those were Alex's hands that had pulled him away from Max. He couldn't mistake them for anything. He turned to glare at him, hoping Alex would see in his eyes how much he hated him for what he had done. Alex seemed unaffected. "First of all, what is the pod and where is it?"

Between Liz and Isobel, they managed to explain what they meant. Kyle understood most of the function as well, from before, when Isobel was put in there, but he didn't dare make a suggestion.

Alex looked at everyone around, gauging their thoughts and, as the girls finished explaining, he had the plan already formed.

"We can't all go there. How many people are needed to put someone in the pod? Will two, maybe three be enough?"

"I think so," Isobel shrugged and, as if she only now realized, she rummaged through her purse and pulled out a bottle of acetone. She handed it to Michael. About time.

"Then you three and Kyle should get out of here. Go to the cabin, I think it's the safest place at the moment. We'll join you as soon as we're done with the pod."

Michael squinted up at Alex, unsure who he meant by "you three" and who by "we", but he didn't need to ask, because Liz protested immediately.

"I want to go with Max. It was my..."

"Quiet!" Alex raised his voice and something in Michael turned alight. Alex in command was the Alex he had only seen glimpses of so far; he was a turn-on nonetheless.

He wasn’t supposed to think about Alex that way though. He was supposed to move on, to leave the past in the past and open up to future possibilities.

Alex’s eyes were bright as he looked at Liz.

“We did a thing,” he said, his voice low once again, quiet, but stern. “Me, Michael and Kyle did a thing, and I won't go into the details _right now_ , because we're short on time, so I'm gonna _say it_ and you're gonna _do it_. Am I clear?" Nobody protested. "Three cars, out there, draws attention. We don't want attention. So, you're gonna take two of those cars and get the hell out of here. Now."

Liz and Rosa coaxed by Kyle filed out of the cave. Maria hesitated in front of Alex.

"We, uh, we need to talk," she whispered, earnest.

"Of course," Alex replied gently and squeezed her arm, "as soon as this crisis is dealt with. I’ll see you in the cabin, go." He had no idea what Maria wanted to talk to him about, Michael realized with a pang of guilt. But he wasn't going to let himself feel guilty, he was not guilty, he was only trying to protect himself.

When Maria left, Alex turned to Isobel and Michael. "We gotta get him out somehow." Brow furrowed, he licked his lips, calculating the options.

Michael figured it would be best if he finally were on his own two feet, so he chugged once more from the acetone bottle and stood up.

"That's simple," he said and focused. Lifting something with his mind required effort, but a little less than if he were to use his arms.

Max floated a foot above the ground.

"Excellent," Alex approved and pride swelled inside Michael's chest.

He had to focus extra hard to wipe the self-content grin from his own face, before Alex would notice. Damn it, at this rate they were going to go right back to having wild sex ten minutes from now.

Isobel's dry humor brought him back to the here and now.

"Be careful not to knock him around while you're at it," she commented, making her voice aptly sour.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you think Michael's actions and thoughts are selfish, or in anyway harsh, especially toward Alex -- in this story I go with the assumption that Michael didn't know the reality of Alex's home situation. I wrote more about it in this [meta](https://eveningspirit.tumblr.com/post/187904796148/did-michael-know-that-alex-was-regularly-abused) on tumblr, in case you want to read. :)

Warmth that spread from inside her chest like a blooming fiery flower, made her feel good. Happy. Like she hadn’t felt in years. There was calmness to it, content. Permeating sense of safety.

…disrupted by something heavy that collapsed on top of her.

Rosa opened her eyes. She was flat on her back, in a cave, and a man lay spread on top of her. She nudged him. He didn’t move.

Unconscious?

With some effort she managed to push him off and turn him around, only to recognize Max Evans, the kid helplessly in love with her sister. Oh, sheesh, that was a new one. What was he doing here with her... Rosa glanced at herself… naked.

She pulled the blanket she was covered with, a little higher, even though Evans was out cold. Or was he? She touched his cheek, then his neck. Tried to find a pulse and didn’t. Damn, this didn’t look good. This looked... bad. They had some CPR classes back at school, but she wasn’t sure she remembered them correctly. She tried nonetheless, with no effect and finally figured she needed to get help.

If help could be found. As far as she could tell, she was in one of the caves at the old turquoise mines in the middle of the desert, most likely. Not her cave, not the one where she had her stuff, but someone else’s from the look of it. There were books, some rags and... a big ass glowing egg.

All... right...

Help first.

Rosa wrapped the blanket around herself as best she could and tried to find the way out of this place. Sure enough, she emerged to daylight in the middle of the desert. Not a soul in sight.

But there was a voice. Someone yelling, “Max!” with urgency and gusto.

Rosa would recognize that voice and that demanding tone anywhere.

“Liz!” She ran to her sister and hugged her and was hugged back tight, so tight as if they hadn’t seen each other for years.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered into Liz’s hair. “It’s all gonna be okay.”

But Liz knew better than that. “Max?” she asked.

Of course Liz tried the same Rosa had, some CPR, some screaming and hitting Max’s unmoving chest repeatedly. Rosa’s heart broke for her. She tried to pull her away, to reason with her, tell her they needed to get back to town, inform the authorities, but Liz just shook her head.

“No. No, Rosa, you don’t understand. We can’t,” as tears streaked down her cheeks. “I hope Michael gets here soon,” she added in a whisper at some point.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before they heard a rumble of someone running through the cave narrow entryway and sure enough Michael rushed into the opening. But it was the other person, right on Michael’s heels, that made Rosa’s blood freeze in her veins.

Isobel. Isobel Evans.

Their eyes met and Isobel froze just the same.

Rosa barely registered the third person who came inside a moment later and who shrieked her name like she saw a living, breathing alien in Roswell. And then there were arms around her and a strong earthy and powdery scent, both familiar and not. And a face in front of her, eyes filled with tears and a fearful smile. Maria.

“Rosa,” Maria choked out. “You’re alive. How? I don’t understand.” She turned back to Max and Michael who pressed against Max’s chest and now screamed. Maria shook her head. “I don’t understand,” she repeated.

Isobel stopped glaring at Rosa and rushed to Michael’s side, trying to pull him away.

“Michael, stop!” she yelled, panicked. “What are you doing?” Liz was at their side too.

“He said we all have those powers!” Michael yelled back, just as panicked and hysterical. “Noah said, didn’t he? So I’m... I’m... I know how to do this!” He jerked free from Isobel’s faint grasp and kneeled beside Max again, both his palms spread wide over Max’s chest. He pushed and screamed into the ceiling of the cave.

“What is this all about? What happened here?” Maria demanded.

Liz knelt next to them. “Shush, Maria, please. Maria, don’t,” she shook her head and there were tears staining all of her face. Rosa’s head was beginning to spin. “Maria, I need you right now. I need you. I know it’s all strange and unfamiliar, but please. Max is dead and Rosa is alive and I need you to help me get through this. Please.”

Maria sobered up immediately and grabbed Liz’s arm. “Of course,” she nodded. “Whatever you need.”

Liz took them both and pulled toward the wall of the cave.

“Okay, so. This is gonna be blunt. Max and Michael and Isobel are aliens. Real, actual aliens from another planet, who came here in a ship that crashed in 1947. The stories are all true. But now Max... See, they have all those powers, like, Max is a healer and, Rosa, he healed you, just now, but it was... Obviously it was hard, and... he gave his life in the process. Now, Michael... Michael has telekinesis. He can move stuff with his mind. And Isobel, she’s a mind reader.”

“Holy shit!” escaped Rosa.

“No!” Liz jumped at that. “It’s not like that and she... It wasn’t her, she didn’t kill you, it was someone else.”

“Isobel killed her?” Maria glared at Liz, then at Isobel, but Rosa got hung up on something else.

“I was killed? Like, dead-killed? I was dead?” Was that why they were all so shocked to see her? To see her alive?

Holy crap.

Liz touched her, gently. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, you were dead, Rosa. We thought we lost you, but it wasn’t Isobel who killed you alright? There was another alien, fourth alien and he...” She glanced at Maria. “It was Noah,” she said like Maria knew some guy named Noah.

Maria obviously did, because her eyes went wide and she covered her open mouth with her hand, then her eyes turned to Isobel, filled with sudden compassion.

“Yeah,” Liz continued, “and Noah, kind of, possessed Isobel. Even long before... Before last year of high school. And he, for some reason, he liked you Rosa and he wanted to... I don’t know what he wanted, but it was him who killed you, when he was in Isobel’s body.”

“That’s...” Rosa nodded. “That’s a lot to take in, you know.”

“I know. I know and I’m so sorry.”

Rosa wondered how long, exactly, she was dead, but before she managed to ask the question, they were joined by another person and Rosa had to contain a yelp of surprise. Kyle Valenti of all people. Football jock, asshole extraordinaire, Liz’s prom boyfriend, but if Rosa remembered well, they broke up over something Valenti said.

Also. Rosa’s younger half brother, if all she suspected was true.  

“What the...” she uttered seeing as Valenti moved around Max’s body, opened his shirt, pushed back his chin and started to resuscitate him in a strangely competent way. “He knows CPR?” Rosa blurted, dumbfounded.

“He’s,” Liz hesitated. “He’s a doctor, actually.”

“Ah.” It must have been a lot of years.

And Kyle must have had their respect or something, as even Michael and Isobel watched him for a few minutes, waiting for his verdict.

But there was nothing even doctor Valenti could do and Michael threw himself on Max again and Isobel screamed that, “Not at the cost of your own life!” again and Liz started to sob uncontrollably next to Rosa. Shit still whirled all around them, but it was too much, for one, and Rosa, regardless of years and calculations and whatnot, needed to console her little sister, so she grabbed her to herself and rocked back and forth. Where was the calm she’d felt when she first woke up in this cave, only minutes ago? Gone, that’s where.

She didn’t listen to the arguments between the aliens and the humans in the cave, but apparently Liz had, because at some point she stood up rapidly and, despite the tremble in her voice, she commanded:

“We have to!” Everyone fell silent and looked at her, so she wiped her nose, sniffed and continued. “We don't have a choice. We hoped it would work, but it didn't and we must take Max to his pod to preserve him the way he’s now. We must take care of all the other stuff, like..." she turned to Rosa and there was love in her eyes, "like with Rosa being here and what to do about her. Let's just take him and let's go..."

"Whoa, wait a moment!" someone from the other side of the cave interrupted, his voice completely unfamiliar and Rosa felt her mouth drop open when she... almost didn’t recognize the face. Alex Manes took command of the room with just a word. A pose, a cadence of his voice.

So it had happened, Rosa thought as her heart fell. At some point in who knows how many years when she wasn’t there to tell him otherwise, Alex Manes gave in to his father’s pressure and joined the military. Good, pure, soft, artistic Alex Manes was now a commanding and authoritative soldier. A leader, seemed like it. An officer perhaps, not just a foot soldier and that was good, that would be higher ranking than Jesse.

"What is the pod?” he asked the question Rosa would ask too, if she thought about it. “And where is it?”

In a strange way, being the only voice of reason in the room fitted him. With his quiet way of asking questions and giving commands, Rosa felt some of her earlier calm and sensation of safety return. When Kyle neared her and extended his palm as an offer to help her up, Rosa accepted it and followed him out of the cave, casting only one curious look as she passed Alex. She hoped they would talk about how all that change in him happened, but first... First she had her own very grown up little brother to grill about the unexpected change in him.

* * *

Michael had trouble keeping up with the reality of everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours. As he brought his brother to Alex’s truck and opened the back door, he got hit with yet another punch to the stomach – Jesse Manes’s slack face.

At first he almost jumped away, only realizing the man was unconscious after a blink of an eye.

He spun on his heel expecting Alex to be right behind him, but it was Isobel with an odd look on her face.

“Is that…” She gestured.

“Yeah,” Michael sighed, glancing behind her back. Alex was at the bottom of the gully, attempting a climb up on all fours. He joined them at the truck just as Michael and Isobel finished putting Max next to Jesse. Dangled his keys in front of Michael’s face.

“You want me to drive?”

“If you don’t mind?”

Awesome.

They didn’t speak all the way up to the cave. Their cave – his, Max’s and Isobel’s. They still didn’t talk as Michael pulled Max out and carried him with his mind through the crevice. Isobel heated up the silver in the machine they’d kept here since her ordeal, just in case. Together they undressed Max and covered him in the solution, then they put him next to the cocoon and it swallowed him inside, with ease.

And that was it.

Still nobody said a word.

Then Alex cleared his throat. Both Michael and Iz turned to glare at him and he looked them in the eyes for a long moment. He stood straight and would appear strong if not for the crutch he supported his bad side with. He would appear invulnerable if not for the look on his face.

“Do you think the same could be done,” he asked after a while, “with my father? Do you think the pod would keep him in stasis? Just as he is now?”

“It’s hard to say,” Michael muttered, sick to his stomach at the prospect of such violation of his family’s sacred space. Another violation of his family by Jesse Manes.

“Rosa was preserved,” Isobel chipped in.

Rosa was different. Rosa was innocent.

“We really...” Alex hesitated. “There isn’t much else we can do, that would keep everyone safe and him out of our way. This,” he gestured to the pods, “it seems like a perfect solution.”

“Fine,” Michael snapped. “I’ll go get him.”

He went past Alex barely avoiding hitting him with his shoulder. He would have, he wanted to; the crutch in Alex’s grip changed his mind at the last moment. Why did he have it anyway? Hadn’t he said he didn’t need it anymore? Did he get worse? Did something happen, did his father?

Michael didn’t want to worry about Alex, but the thought of Jesse Manes hurting any more people, made his blood boil. He was not gentle at all pulling the– he didn’t even have a word for Manes; monster was too gentle – out of the truck and through the narrow passageway. If Jesse had a couple of more bruises after, than before, well, there was only so much Michael could do. Then he dumped him unceremoniously in front of the pods.

“Or maybe we could just,” he spread his arms wide and turned to Alex, “kill him?”

“Michael,” Isobel gasped from behind his back. “That’s Alex’s father! I don’t think you have any right to suggest a savagery like this.”

Alex’s eyes snapped to her, then back to Michael. “Actually,” he said, then shook his head and inhaled deep, deliberately, through his nose then blew the air out through his mouth, like he wanted to blow out the candle. He licked his lips and repeated the breathing a couple more times, eyes trained on his father. Michael waited. Finally Alex spoke. “It’s Kyle who put him in a coma. He didn’t want him dead, which is why we didn’t kill him, but if you,” he met Michael’s eyes with determination. “If anyone has any right to make a decision about his life or death, Guerin, it is you. Considering everything he’d done to you,” his eyes flicked to his hand and narrowed, but he completed the sentence nonetheless, “and to your people.” He fell silent for a couple of breaths, as Michael contemplated his words.

Between Isobel claiming that just being someone’s father exempted them from being dealt what they deserved and Alex giving him free reign, Michael wasn’t sure anymore that he could actually do it. Murder a person, with cold blood. An unconscious, defenseless person. Perhaps if he was awake and actively threatening someone. Alex, Isobel, Max, anyone. Then yes, then he probably could, but this?...

Manes lay on the rocky floor of the cave, his arms sprawled, head turned to the side, legs tangled together. The position didn’t appear comfortable, but Manes didn’t mind – he didn’t feel it.

“I don’t want him on your conscience, Guerin,” Alex added softly. “Which is why I think the pod is a better solution, for now. Until we can think about it clearly and make a reasonable plan. But if you really want him dead, just say the word.”

“And then what?” Michael looked up at Alex, dumbfounded. “You’ll kill him?”

“Yes.”

The answer was so simple, Michael had to double take. He looked over Alex; he had no gun on him, no deadly weapon. The only thing he carried – at least the only thing Michael saw – was his crutch.

“With what?” he asked.

“It’s not that hard to kill a person, once you know the weak spots.”

Michael blinked.

The implications of those words were too terrifying to even consider. Had Alex ever killed a person with his bare hands? Would he do that to his own blood? How would that affect him?

Michael swallowed.

“Let’s put him into my pod.” Suddenly the idea of Jesse Manes, the evil incarnate, soiling his pod with his evilness, wasn’t so hideous.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for your comments on the previous chapter. I'm sorry I didn't respond and I hope to do better this time.  
> I also hope the updates will be more regular now, because I know what I want to say, there's like three chapters left, and new season is coming, which will render this fic complete AU and therefore useless, so...  
> Anyway. Hope you'll enjoy.
> 
> ETA: Great thanks to [EmmaArthur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaArthur) for proofreading this for me and for your feedback. :)

Alex didn't expect a "pod" to be something so breathtaking. The way soft iridescent colors simmered just underneath the surface had strange effect on him, both soothing and distressing at the same time. The process of shrouding a person in silver solution had something other-worldy to it.

No surprise. The pods were literally from another world.

His father didn't belong there, Alex could feel the jarring wrongness of it almost on a visceral level. He couldn't figure out any other solution, though. There was too much going on and pushing this one problem to the backburner meant they could focus on other matters.

As Isobel and Michael performed the rites, he tried, once more, to catalogue the problems and systematize them. They needed a strategy.

Rosa. Caufield. The murderer. Max's death was temporarily dealt with, although lack of Max created another problem. As did the need to cover up his disappearance.

So again, Rosa, Caufield, the murderer, Max. The bunker. They shouldn't have left all the data they had in the bunker; it could be compromised. Also, there was Flint. Did he know dad was back Stateside? Would he look for him?

"We're done here." Michael's voice startled Alex and he couldn't get his breathing under control for a couple of heartbeats. "Let's go?" Michael half-asked.

Isobel was already in the corridor, several steps ahead of them. Alex nodded and followed her. He thought he should say something. He wanted to say something but nothing seemed meaningful enough. A simple thank you wouldn't do justice to what Michael offered. Those pods were connected to them. Alex knew that, although he didn't know how.

The walk through the cave was grueling. His leg didn't appreciate all the upward and downward truncates of large boulders nor gravel rolling under his boot. At least he had sense enough to take his supporting device this time, he thought to himself as he almost slipped.

"Did he do something to you?" Michael asked from behind his back, in a voice that sounded tired and resigned, but promised violence at the same time.

"What?" Alex half-turned to him, leaning his left shoulder and hip against a rock protruding from the crevice's wall. Just in time to notice Michael's eyes flick from the crutch up to Alex's face. "Why?" His sudden surge of anger surprised even him. "Because of this?" He indicated the crutch. "Oh, for cryin' out loud! I'm missing a leg, did you know?"

Michael blinked at him, startled. "Yeah, I know," he muttered, "look, I'm sorry," fumbled with words, "it's just, you said you no longer needed it and I thought..."

"Did I? Did I say that?" Alex pressed on with a sneer, paying no mind to Michael's apologetic expression. "Because I guarantee you, I'm always going to need it. Unless my leg magically grows back, which, I don't know, can Max do that?"

Michael's shoulders dropped a few inches. "I… uh, I don't know. I… He…" he stuttered.

And Alex felt like shit. Like he was the shittiest person in the world. He wiped his face, like he could wash this ugliness away.

"I'm," he had to swallow, because his voice failed him. "I'm sorry. Shit, I shouldn't have snapped at you like this. I don't know why I did it."

"It's…" Michael tried to help. "It's been a tough day?"

"Yeah, but." There was no explanation for his behavior. "It was tougher on you, I bet. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." They might just get back to the subject at hand. What was it Michael asked? Whether he got hurt by... "No. He, uh… He hurt Kyle though."

"Uh… Wha…"

Alex pointed behind Michael's back. He couldn't bring himself to just say words like 'my dad' or 'my father'. "He came into the bunker when Kyle was there. He was following him. Jesse, I mean." He found the word. "Jesse was following Kyle and Kyle… he must have known that. Somehow. He got himself a vest, you know. A bulletproof vest. Which… A good idea, considering he shot to kill."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah." One more thing to add to the tally. They should have checked Kyle's chest, he might have gotten hurt, bruised at the very least. Add that to the trauma of almost getting murdered. He needed to talk to Kyle and soon.

"What bunker?" Michael asked.

"What?" Alex looked up, then realized Michael wasn't in on all the Project Sheppard discoveries. "The bunker. My father's bunker, where he had all the surveillance stuff and all. I mentioned it before." Michael nodded, brow furrowed. Alex chuckled mirthlessly. "Just one more of those things we all need to talk about. I mean. All of us."

"Yeah. So we better get going." Michael nodded.

"Yeah," Alex looked at the cave's floor without joy. He sighed, "We better get going."

* * *

Maria was the best. Liz was so grateful to her best friend for not asking anything, even though she must have wondered what was all that about and why was she the last to find out about literal aliens. Especially considering Mimi's ravings. Oh! Later. They would deal with it later.

Right now Maria drove Liz's car, tailing Kyle in Michael's truck, and Liz was showing Rosa how she played her music in the car. Because she had to occupy her mind with something different than Max being... well, not dead. Definitely not dead. And Rosa also being not dead. This was too much. Spotify was easier.

"Yeah, so like my phone has this app, here, and I can create my own playlists or just have them shuffle randomly, or have the app pick new songs I might like."

"The app?"

"The application. Yeah, like, a program?"

"I know what the app is. I just... How does it know what you like? Is it, like, artificial intelligence? Is that a thing now?"

"Well. Not AI yet, per se, but they pretty much have those algorithms now, that pick targeted ads, for example, based on our online activity. Same with music, you have playlists and likes, and the algorithm just... knows." Liz shrugged. She wasn't sure how much she needed to explain to Rosa. What was the world like ten years ago? Did it really change so much? "We are all scanned back and forth, so google knows everything. And facebook."

"Not yahoo?" Rosa asked and as Liz looked up at her, she recognized that sarcastic tilt of her sister's head. It woke something inside of her, some long forgotten feeling.

"What is yahoo?" She joked back.

Dear God, she missed Rosa. Her throat constricted and she wanted nothing more than hug Rosa and feel that she was really here, warm, alive.

"I think we've arrived." Maria spoke then and broke the moment.

Which – great. Because Liz's emotions were all over the place and she'd rather not fall apart just yet.

As they pulled the car next to Michael's truck, though, it was Rosa who started to spiral. She looked up through the windshield and paled.

"No…"

"Rosa?" Liz didn't understand. They stopped in front of a wooden cabin, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. "What is it?"

But Rosa sprung out of the car and ran toward Kyle, still hugging the patterned blanket she'd been covered with since the cave.

"What the fuck, Kyle?" she screamed. "Why did you bring me here? How did you know?"

"Rosa!" Maria ran after her. "Calm down. What's wrong?"

Liz just stood next to the car, frozen.

Kyle raised both palms, like when approaching a distraught patient, but didn't manage to cut in a word.

"Is Jim here?" Rosa prattled, her voice cracking. "Did he have anything to do with this, did he orchestrate it?" She looked back and forth between the three of them, eyes wide and panicked. Tears started to flow down her cheeks. "I wanted to get to him anyway! I was planning to, but she came after me and she was all weird..." she drifted off, lost in thoughts, memories that she tried to make sense of.

Liz realized she was crying too. She wiped at her cheeks angrily.

"Rosa, no one wants to hurt you." Kyle stepped closer, his palms still up and his voice calm, yet strong. "No one plotted anything, it's all just… very complicated." He inched toward her

"Then tell me already!" Rosa yelled at the top of her lungs. "What are you even doing here?" She pushed him square in the chest to put more emphasis on the word 'you'.

It didn't seem like a very strong push. Rosa wasn't bulked up and after ten years spent in whatever suspended animation it was, she appeared even more frail than usual. And yet, Kyle groaned, doubled over and sunk to the ground clutching his chest.

Rosa took a step back, glaring at her hands in shock. The blanket fell around her feet, revealing her complete nakedness.

Liz forgot to breathe. Maria right next to her gasped, then moved right up to cover Rosa back with the blanket.

Rosa stared at them, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "I-- I-- I didn't," she stammered.

Kyle tried to uncurl and he raised his hand waving feebly at Rosa. "Not you," he grunted. "I was shot."

Shot.

All three girls stared at one another in turn, then back at Kyle.

"Shit, it fuckin' hurts. Could one of you maybe help me up?"

Maria, again, was the first to shake it off and she moved toward Kyle. Then, at his instruction Liz, still in complete haze, found the key to the house. They laid him on the couch, Liz went to get some water and Maria went to the bathroom to find painkillers Kyle said had to be somewhere around. Liz remembered he had mentioned that Alex now lived in Jim Valenti's old hunting cabin. This had to be the place. And, apparently, Rosa knew about it. Probably Rosa knew about Jim being her father too.

She entered the house last, looking around it in wonder, like she tried to catalogue all the changes ten years had imprinted on the place. Tentatively she sat on the edge of the armchair next to the fireplace. "So Alex lives here now? What about your da-- Jim. What about Jim?" She stared at the table in the middle of the room with strange apprehension.

"Uh." Kyle stammered.

Liz put the glass of water on the table and stood there awkwardly, wriggling her fingers. Were they supposed to just tell Rosa that Jim was dead?

"Do you know?" Kyle asked. Rosa's eyes snapped to his.

"That you're my brother? Well, half brother, technically. Yeah, I know."

"He died." Kyle made a decision without consulting it with Liz. His voice was gentle, but then his face scrunched up and he sobbed. "I'm sorry."

"Kyle?" Liz closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It was five years ago," she scolded him. They didn't need him to also break down, especially about something that was firmly in the past. Wasn't it?

"Well, there's a full arsenal." Maria came back with a distraction from the other part of the cabin. "Ibuprofen, something called… Celebrex? I don't know what it is, but says take two pills every eight hours in case of mild to moderate pain. There's also Vicodin and Percocet. Alex is not fucking around, is he? Wow," she sighed and met Liz's eyes. "I didn't know."

Liz didn't know either. And now wasn't the best time to analyze Alex's pain management. He seemed to deal well enough with it and Liz didn't have any spare mental space at the moment.

"Give me Vicodin." Kyle reached out, shook a pill onto his palm, hesitated, shook another one and swallowed them both with a grimace, then chased them with a solid gulp of water.

"Shit," Rosa said. "How did he die?"

Apparently she didn't register anything beyond Jim Valenti dying. Good for her. Liz was about to say it was cancer, but Kyle beat her to it.

"Well that's the thing," he begun, throwing her off. "I just found out." He looked up at Liz, answering to her 'five years ago' comment. "He was killed. It wasn't just cancer, he was, sort of, infected. By the same man who shot me." He looked at each of the girls in turn, then disclosed the name. "Jesse Manes."

Then, instead of basking in their shock, he gasped, his eyes widened and he repeated, "Jesse Manes," with fear and anxiousness. Then he sprung to his feet, swayed and promptly collapsed right back onto the couch.

* * *

t.b.c.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said in the new A/N, I want to wrap up this one story thread and erase the love triangle from existence. I hope to get it done within the next two chapters and I hope I'll manage to finish this story before Season 2.  
> Thank you, EmmaArthur, for encouraging me to keep going *mwah!*

When Liz asked her, how she was holding up – after they settled down Kyle and calmed a freaked out Rosa a little – Maria wasn't sure she was capable of an honest answer.

"I'm holding up," she put on a brave face. It slipped on like a well-adjusted dress that wasn't her favorite, but she wore every day because it was more comfortable than the other one. "How about you?"

Liz shook her head and raised both her hands. "I don't think I can think about it."

Of course. Liz always managed to somehow be more dramatic. Better grades, exciting career, dead boyfriend. Was he really dead though? They all acted like he could be brought back. And judging by what she saw with her own eyes right now – Rosa sitting in the armchair, curled in on herself and distressed, but moving, breathing – maybe Max could come back too? Max was an alien. Who knew what aliens could do?

Apparently Isobel and Michael were aliens too. As was Isobel's husband, who… was also dead now? Damn it. So much happened in this town and Maria had no idea about any of it. About actual aliens right here in Roswell. All that, while her mother raved on and on about aliens walking among them and everybody thought she was crazy, including her own daughter. Did Liz know aliens were real when Mimi kept warning her about whatever danger she perceived?

Was the danger real? Was Liz in danger?

Was Maria? With Michael?

Michael, Isobel, and Alex returned shortly after Kyle fell asleep.

Isobel strolled in first, like the room belonged to her, the way she always did. Rosa's reaction to her – eyes wide open and gasping – had Maria on her feet in an instant.

"Come here." She grabbed Isobel's elbow and pulled her into the kitchen.

Isobel snapped her hand back, offended, but Maria caught her pretenses short, "You didn't kill her, right?"

"No." Isobel seethed and if looks could kill, Maria thought she'd be a pile of ash on the floor. Or maybe looks could kill and Isobel actually restrained herself? "It was Noah. Although," she faltered, un-Isobel-like, and rubbed her palms against her thighs, like they were dirty. "He was in my body, he possessed me at the time, so to speak."

Maria nodded.

"So yours is the last face Rosa remembers from before she died?"

"Yes."

"You shouldn't--"

"I know." Isobel didn't let Maria finish. She gave her a pointed look and spoke like Maria was irrational. "Trust me, I realize it isn't easy on her. I'll try to make myself scarce."

As they returned to the main room, Kyle was sitting upright and talking, while Liz tried to get him to stop.

"We dealt with him, Kyle," Alex stated in an exasperated tone. His face was pinched and Maria could feel the pain radiating off him in turbulent waves. "Jesse Manes is out of the picture, at least for a while."

"That's good." Kyle almost stood up, but Liz pulled him down. "That's such a relief, you know because I was worried he might come after you or after anyone in this room, really. If he knew. What does he know anyway? Do we know what he knows? Or who else knows? Do your brothers know? Flint was in Caulfield, so he's in on it too, isn't he? What about Greg and?..."

"Kyle, please, stop talking!" Liz exploded. "I'm sorry, we gave him something for the pain." She looked up at Alex. "We found it in…" she waved her hand around.

"Something effective, I see." Alex winced. "No surprise he's all over the place."

"I'm not over anything," Kyle protested. "I'm perfectly clearheaded and I know what kind of danger we're in." He wagged a finger at Alex

"Well, I'm not sure any of us actually knows what danger we're in." Alex interrupted. He made a move like he wanted to shift his weight from one leg to the other and stumbled. Michael caught him around his middle, while Liz sprung to her feet.

"Alex, you should sit down." She urged him to the vacated armchair.

With Michael's help, Alex limped to the chair and reached for the Vicodin still sitting on the table. Popped two pills and swallowed them dry.

"We all, each of us, knows some part of the whole picture. But I don't think anybody here really has a grasp on everything. How about we finally share?" He looked around and everyone nodded.

"You're so smart Alex." Kyle reached out and patted his shoulder. "I've always known you were smart."

Alex stared him down and Kyle slowly withdrew his hand.

"Do we know if there's anyone else in town, who knows that aliens are real and who they are?"

"Jenna," Kyle muttered.

"Right. Jenna. She's left though, I think. She's not in Roswell anymore. So. That's just us? Arturo doesn't know?" Alex looked at Liz and she shook her head.

"Mimi knows," Maria quipped, sitting on the edge of the couch, smirking at them. "She's always known."

Alex looked up at her nodding. "She used to be friends with Jim and Jesse. There is something there, Maria. We'll have to dig into that as well." He hid his face in his palms for a moment, but shook off whatever indecision threatened to come over him. "First things first. We have to ensure everyone's safety."

"We have to find others," Michael cut in. "You said yourself, all that data from Caulfield…"

"What is Caulfield?" now Isobel interrupted. "You said that word before."

"We have to bring Max back!" Liz had her own agenda.

"And we have to hide Rosa," added Kyle.

Then everybody was speaking all at once until Alex slammed his hand on the table.

"Everyone quiet!"

They all turned to him and glared, like they'd never heard him raise his voice before. And, if she were to be honest, Maria had to admit she probably hadn't.

He stared at them, wide-eyed and panting. If a faint film of sweat on his forehead was anything to go by, he probably wasn't doing too well. Michael stood right next to him and put his hand lightly on Alex's shoulder.

How was it, really, with them? Maria watched their not-quite communication with bated breath. Alex didn't look up at Michael, didn't touch his hand, but he seemed to draw strength from it anyway. Was it subliminal? Telepathic, alien-like? Or just two men who knew what the other needed? Were they… Were they over, or were they not over? She'd thought Alex was hung up on the ten years old teenage kiss, but perhaps Michael had feelings for Alex too? Did she thrust herself into a stupid love triangle? It was the last thing she needed.

"Max is in stasis for now," Alex turned to Liz, hope that she would agree to let it go evident in his voice. "We will focus on him when more pressing matters are dealt with, okay? My father is out of the picture too, but Flint is not. I don't know about the others, but it's safe to assume all my brothers were in on it."

"In on what?"

"On the aliens, Liz. My father knew about the aliens."

Kyle raised his hand, like a schoolboy. "Liz, I told you about the bunker. I'm sure I told you, I must have." He furrowed his brow. "And about my dad's bunker, right here."

"Shut up, Kyle." This time Rosa cut in. Maria met her eyes and with some relief found that she was alert and clearly fascinated with what was being said.

"Jesse and Jim and their fathers before them," Alex explained, "ever since 1947, ran an operation named Project Shepherd, aimed at protecting humans from invasion from outer space."

"By imprisoning, torturing and murdering aliens that survived the crash," Michael cut in, his tone gravely.

"That's right." Alex seemed to curl in on himself and tried to move away from Michael's hand still on his arm, but Michael only squeezed harder and pinned him in place. Alex swallowed, then squared his shoulders, took a deep breath and kept going. "They had a facility in Caulfield, but it's safe to assume there were more like it. We got some hard drives from Caulfield, but they are in that old bunker now. Considering my father came back from Africa, we should assume the bunker is compromised. We have to take those disks from there as soon as possible and bring them here."

"We can do it first thing in the morning."

"No. We should do it now. Or. In a moment. Rosa, how are you doing?

"What, me? I'm… This is pretty insane, even by my standards. Honestly? I'm not sure."

"I think you should stay here for the night." It was a statement but phrased as a question. Rosa responded to it by simply nodding.

"I'll stay too." Liz jumped. "I can, I mean?"

"Of course."

"Someone should take Kyle home," Maria noted.

"Oh, I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Alex nodded at her with gratitude. "And I will need this couch. Liz, Rosa, you'll take the bedroom in the back."

"I can take him," Isobel said. "I'm just not sure where to go."

"I'll come with," Maria knew. She figured she'd be taking Kyle, but having company, even if it was Isobel, might help.

"Good. That leaves me and you with the bunker." Alex looked up at Michael. "Are you up for it?"

"Are you?"

"Of course." Alex shrugged like he didn't understand the concern, but Michael clarified,

"The leg?"

"Oh. It's… better.

"What happened?" Rosa asked looking straight at Alex.

Of course. One more thing she didn't know. She probably read the room though, sensing it wasn't something recent and easily fixable. That it was permanent.

Everyone fell silent and looked to Alex. It was his thing to tell, even if it wasn't the best moment.

He wanted to dismiss it like he usually did, Maria could tell, but he thought better of it. He would have to tell her anyway, sooner or later.

Maria looked at Rosa and wondered what she thought about all of them now. What she thought about how they changed and who changed the most. It was probably Alex. She felt different than when she had been a carefree teenager, before her best friend died and two others left town, and her Mom got ill. But she didn't think it showed on the outside.

Liz looked and acted the same as she had ten years ago.

Alex though? Alex was an entirely different person.

"I lost my right leg in Iraq. Below the knee."

"Shit."

"Yeah. Shit." He stood up almost without a hitch, but Maria sensed odd vibration in the air when he faltered minutely. She met Michael's eyes and for one charged moment she somehow knew it was him, whatever happened. This was the alien thing. Alex either didn't notice, or he played it well. "You'll find clean sheets in the chest and you can borrow some t-shirts to sleep if you want." He told Liz and Rosa. "We'll be back in about two hours. We'll probably make some noise, just so you know. So don't get scared. Other than that, there's the alarm system installed on the property. It will be on once we all leave. If it gets activated, Rosa, I take it you know where to hide?"

Rosa glanced at the table in the middle of the room and nodded solemnly.

"That I do."

"Alright. Let's do it then."

They started to assemble. Isobel and Liz took to convincing Kyle that he had to comply and Maria pulled at Michael's arm and nodded towards the kitchen when he looked at her.

"Look, we made a mistake," she whispered, her eyes glued to Alex, now wrapped in Rosa's arms. He returned the hug and they just stood there, like two best friends who hadn't seen each other for years.

Michael scratched the back of his head. "I don't know," he muttered. "Everything is such a mess now."

"I know this one thing. What you and Alex had in high school – it isn't over, is it?"

"Honestly? I have no idea."

"Trust me then. Trust my psychic instincts." She smiled. She hoped it was genuine, but it was probably bitter. "The two of you – it's not over. So. We kissed back at the Pony, but it was meaningless. And it will not go beyond that. This time I mean it."

"Alright?" Michael didn't seem happy with the decision, but he would comply with it.

Of course he would, because it took two to that tango, and she wasn't going to be that woman. Even if it didn't make her happy either. She thought she had something there, with Michael. She wanted it, in a way. Even if he was an alien.

But she also cherished what she had with Alex and she would never jeopardize their friendship, no matter what.


	8. Epilogue

Michael was tired. More than tired. Very tired. He felt like he hadn't slept in three days and, frankly speaking, he probably wasn't that far off with this assessment. At least Alex took the wheel from him after he'd nearly drove them into a tree. They were probably half-way to town.

"I kissed Maria," Michael blurted out.

Alex didn't respond for a while. Only when Michael started wondering if he perhaps only thought he'd said that, Alex sighed, "I see."

"Yeah."

Then they drove in silence for a while again. And then Michael had another thought and voiced it immediately.

"What are we, actually?"

"We?"

"You and me. Are we... a thing? Like, together, thing?"

Alex took in a deep breath, and he probably had some answer to that, but Michael wasn't sure he was ready to hear it.

"Because," he shot before Alex could start speaking. "Because we weren't. And then you came, last night and there was something. But I don't really know where we stand."

He turned to look at Alex for the first time since this conversation started. Alex looked back at him. His lips twisted in a sad not-smile and he shrugged.

"I'm not saying all this because of Maria," Michael explained. "This isn't gonna happen either way. She doesn't want it. I don't think I really want it either. But, I don't know--" his voice faltered, "if I want--" he couldn't finish.

"I love you," Alex said simply. "I don't think I will ever stop, I don't think that's possible."

"I love you too," Michael replied and he was surprised just by how easily those words came to him.

"But this is not the right time."

"This is not the right time."

Finally, they agreed on something. Why was it that they couldn't be together?

"When the time is right though," Alex added, turning to him fully. "I am staying, Michael. This time, for real, I am not going anywhere. And, I guess, we'll see."

They had stopped. Alex had stopped the car at some point during their conversation.

"Are we… there?"

Alex looked out the windshield, startled by the question. It was dark outside.

"Yeah. Yes, let's go. Be careful."

They climbed out of the car and Alex neared the bunker hatch. He put in some sort of code and opened it.

"There's some equipment inside that I'd like to take with us. I'll unplug everything and you--"

"I'll get it to the car."

"Great."

That was how they started to dismantle Project Shepherd legacy.

Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading.  
> This one was short, but I feel that this is where it had to end. And either way, Season Two has just started and this story officially became AU and I didn't set out to write and AU. :)  
> I hope to write some new stories as the season progresses.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. :)


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